Groups demand that Canada comply with UN order to ensure dignified access to healthcare

Montreal, February 12, 2019 – Hundreds of people braved the winter cold in response to the call for a National Day of Action across the country by the #HealthcareForMigrants campaign, which is demanding dignified access to healthcare for everyone living here, regardless of immigration status. In Quebec, actions were organized in Valleyfield, Sherbrooke and Montreal, where the rally was endorsed by over 30 healthcare, labour, feminist, community-based and migrant-justice groups.

In August 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) issued a landmark decision in the case of 49-year-old Nell Toussaint, condemning Canada for denying essential healthcare to migrants.

“It is unacceptable that people who live here as part of our communities are denied access to healthcare, something deemed a universal human right for the rest of the population. If the federal government accords any value to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Canada is a signatory to since 1976, it must comply with the UNHCR decision immediately,” said Marie-Ève Marleau of the Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine.

Originally from Grenada, Nell has been living and working in Canada since 1999. She was denied essential healthcare services for nearly two decades, during which time she suffered severe consequences of a treatable condition. The UNHRC declared that in failing to provide essential healthcare “to prevent a reasonably foreseeable risk that [could] result in the loss of life,” Canada committed a human rights violation and discriminated against Nell based on her immigration status.

With the current discriminatory legislation in place, hundreds of thousands of migrants including many temporary-status workers, international students, some individuals with pending claims and virtually all non-status people are not eligible for public healthcare.

Claudia Faille of the Regroupement Les Sages-femmes du Québec (RSFQ) pointed out that young families with precarious status are also impacted: “Prenatal access to healthcare is a fundamental human right. The administrative and financial barriers in place endanger the health and lives of mothers and their babies.”

Fred Burrill, of the migrant-justice group Solidarity Across Borders, stated: “In an era marked by rising xenophobia, it is urgent to denounce ideological exclusionary measures that scapegoat migrants by depicting them as intruders and threats while completely disregarding issues of human dignity and social justice.”

Samir Shaheen-Hussain, a member of the Caring for Social Justice Collective that organized the Montreal rally, concluded by asserting: “As healthcare activists, we cannot remain silent in the face of such injustice. We must tear down these borders in our healthcare system to ensure dignified access for all.”